Marcus mutilates the bear

Here's a description of the contestant's attempt. Someone's probably working on collecting some images to illustrate it.

Marcus declares his intention to send a bear to space for the first time, much like the Russians did to a dog.

He dresses the bear in a makeshift space suit made of red overalls and a fish bowl as a helmet, and brings it in a wheelchair to an open field. He inflates balloons with helium, but accidentally lets go of several that float into the sky.

After attaching about three dozen balloons, he attempts to launch the first test flight, but the bear doesn’t move. Marcus then undresses the bear to reduce its weight, but it still doesn’t budge.

He then slices the bear open to remove its padding, calling his manoeuvre a “gastric bypass”. It still doesn’t work, so he cuts the bear’s head off with a scissor, and its head on its own turns out to be light enough for the balloons to lift off.

However, it only manages to fly for about 5 seconds before getting stuck in the only tree in the field. Marcus runs to grab a ladder and a pole, and eventually manages to get the balloons loose from the tree.

He scores 2 points, as only part of the bear had gone on an adventure.

(Written by Liv Lovisa and proofread by Karl Craven)